Modern Harem

As a teenager, Gladys Nilsson attended after-school classes and lectures at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). When she began to think about college, SAIC felt like the natural choice and was the only school for which she submitted an application. As a student, she frequently visited the Art Institute of Chicago and was particularly fascinated with Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte / A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886, oil on canvas, 208 x 308 cm) by Georges Seurat (1859–1891, French post-Impressionist artist who devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointilism), delighting in the artist’s mixing of colours and his compositional organisation.

Similar to Seurat, Nilsson’s works present intricate and enigmatic dramas animated by stylised characters. The densely layered content of her paintings, however, places her closer to the Northern Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516, Dutch painter who is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school), as her figures engage in scenes of courtship, gastronomic delights, and narcissistic passions. According to the Chicago Tribune (Lisa Stein, ‘Nilsson’s Colors Continue to Get More Intense’, Thursday, October 15, 1998), her paintings ‘set forth a surreal mixture of fantasy and domesticity in a continuous parade of chaotic images.’

Besides Seurat and Bosch, Nilsson’s influences are far ranging and also include German Expressionism, 15th Century Italian painting, Egyptian tomb murals, Cubism, and, more specifically, artists like Kathleen Blackshear (1897–1988,American modernist artist known for her sensitive depictions of African-American subjects), James Ensor (1860–1949, Belgian painter and printmaker who was an important influence on expressionism and surrealism), George Grosz (1893–1959, German artist, and prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic, known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s), Paul Klee (1879-1940, Swiss-born German artist whose highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism and surrealism), and John Marin (1870–1953, early American modernist visual artist known for his abstract landscape paintings and watercolours). The result is a style that borders on surrealism and pop-art.

In addition to art historical references, Nilsson addresses vernacular imagery and autobiographical concerns with a playful and often ironic tone. The joy Nilsson derives from observation lies at the heart of her practice. Nilsson takes the human figure as her main subject, magnifying, multiplying, and distorting these figures as she sees fit. Her playful, mischievous figurative tableaux express her sense of humour and boundless curiosity. These figures engage in disguise, voyeurism, and a complex web of interactions.

In the 1960s, Nilsson became intrigued by the female form, which she perceived as a spectacle as well as a source of power and humour. In the 1970s, her life in Chicago and her travels abroad featured heavily in the content of her work, as she drew upon images and scenes from her own life.

Nilsson works in watercolour (while completing her undergraduate degree, she used oil paints, but she shifted to more portable and flexible watercolours when she became pregnant with her son Claude in 1961), but uses pencil underdrawing as a guide as she paints. Although these drawings are hidden under layers of colourful transparent washes, they give the paintings their crisp definition.

After a residency at Arizona State University in the 1990s, Nilsson experimented with monotypes and etchings. Her recent works combine her characteristic attention to minutiae with casual, gestural elements. Even though primarily regarded as a brilliant watercolourist, Nilsson has also explored several other mediums, including silver ink on black paper and acrylic on canvas.

Signed and dated verso: ‘Gladys Nilsson 1984’.

Provenance

(Possibly) Galerie Bonnier, Geneva, Switzerland.

Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm.

Private collection, Uppsala, Sweden.

Bukowskis, Stockholm, Sale 654, Contemporary Art & Design, 25 April 2024, lot 403.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired at the above sale).